Volume 24, Issue 95 (12-2024)
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ghaderzadeh O. (2024). Gender Violence: Presenting a Grounded Theory. refahj. 24(95), : 5 doi:10.32598/refahj.24.95.291.3
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-4327-en.html
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-4327-en.html
Keywords: Gender violence, Institutional violence, Social exclusion, Suspension of individual identity, Symbolic violence
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Extended Abstract
Introduction
Gender-based violence including rape, intimate partner violence, domestic violence, sex trafficking, and honor killings is part of a global pattern of violence against women. A pattern supported by educational, economic and occupational discrimination. Partner, family, and sexual violence is the leading cause of death and disability for women aged 16 to 44 worldwide (Rose, 2013). In Iranian society, violence against women is considered a personal and family matter, and many officials refuse to deal with it. But the similar patterns that exist in the experiences of assaulting women reveal that violence against women is something beyond a special issue, and it has its roots in cultural and social practices (Sadeghi Fasaei, 2010).
One of the main social problems in Iranian Kurdistan is the spread of family violence. Violence against women is the most serious type of violence in the family structure, and one of the most common aspects of which is the phenomenon of honor killings (Riahi & Esmaili, 2019). The results of the national project “Survey of domestic violence against women in 28 provinces of Iran” show that in the year leading up to the research, women have experienced at least one type of violence, and the city of Sanandaj is one of the provincial centers with statistics with a high level of domestic violence (Qazi Tabatabai, 2004).
Gender-based violence is not limited to a certain age. It occurs among women with different social positions, and also because violence is not limited to the family and its existence in public and official arenas, gender violence has become a social problem. The most common reason for denying women’s human rights is to preserve family and culture. Gender violence is one of the important causes of illness and death among women and it has long been known as a problem and challenge to human rights, which has serious consequences for the health of society and is an obstacle to economic development (Roze, 2013: 61). The present research intends to examine the conditions and contexts of violence in the family, public, and official arenas by referring to women’s lived experience of gender violence, and through that, provide strategies to deal with gender violence.
Method
In the current research, qualitative methodology and Grounded Theory (GT) method were used to study the contexts of gender violence. The participants in the current research are women from Sanandaj who have experienced violence in family life and public and official arenas, and are referred to courts and counseling centers. The participants were selected using purposive sampling and the maximum variation strategy. Considering the principle of theoretical saturation in determining the number of sample people, a semi-structured interview was conducted with a total of 35 women who experienced violence. The data were coded in three levels: open, axial, and selective. For data validation, participants’ quotes, audit technique, control or validation by members and researcher’s self-review technique were used.
Findings
What was evident in the statements of the interviewees is that their world is mixed with violence. They have experienced institutional violence, symbolic violence, visible violence and psychological violence in the family and public and official arenas. Based on the data, gender socialization, institutional discrimination, and deprivation of power sources have shaped the contexts of gender violence. The experience of violence for women is mixed with disempowerment, neglect, institutional exclution, pervasive fear, and cynicism towards men.
Women adopt strategies based on their experience of violence. Interviewees were asked what ways they have taken to get out of violence and assault. Based on the data, although girls and women have tried to make their living conditions more acceptable through negotiation and activism, due to the absence of gender awareness, resistance against assault has not become the dominant action of women. Therefore, fatalism and escaping from society has become the most common strategy of the studied women in facing violence; strategies that have led to the acceptance of conventional identity, fear and cynicism towards men and the absence of life politics.
Discussion
Deprivation of power sources, lack of access to supportive social networks, institutional discrimination, and obstruction of organizational promotion show the fragility and vulnerability of women in various fields. As shown in Table 1, the core category of “gender violence as social exclusion” shows the fact that gender violence has led to double social exclusion of women. The spread of violence shows more than anything else the institutional and structural aspect of violence. Therefore, gender violence cannot be reduced to an individual issue and neglect the change and reform of the institutional and structural foundations of violence.
Table 1. Selective coding
As Acker (1992) states in the framework of the “gendered Institutions” approach, the production and reproduction of gender inequality takes place through gendered Institutions. Work and family are among the gender institutions that provide unequal distribution of power sources and gender violence. The genderization of social rules and institutions implies the structural foundations of gender violence.
Based on the field data, the social division of labour in the family has an unequal nature and it is necessary to rebuild the social roles in the family. In terms of strategy, emotional democracy, communication rationality and horizontalization of power relations in the family depend on the redefinition of the role of femininity and masculinity with an emphasis on the appropriateness of rights and roles. Talking about the reconstruction of social roles in the family will be incomplete without redefining and reconstructing the role and status of women in society and the necessity of this work is the participation of women in establishing the rules governing different fields as a prerequisite for degendering social rules and the institutionalized participation of women in different fields.
Ethical Considerations
Author contributions
The author contributed in designing, running, and writing all parts of the research.
Conflicts of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Acker, J. (1992). From sex roles to gendered institutions. Contemporary Sociology, 21(5), 565-569. https://doi.org/10.2307/2075528
Qazi Tabatabai, M. (2004). National research on domestic violence against women. Women’s Affairs Participation Center of the Presidential Institution and the Ministry of Interior. (In Persian)
Rose, S. D. (2013). Challenging global gender violence. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 82, 61-65. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137388483
Sadeghi Fasaei, S. (2010). A qualitative study of domestic violence and women’s coping strategies in Iran. Iranian Journal of Social Problems, 1(1), 107-142. https://ijsp.ut.ac.ir/article_20747.html?lang=en(In Persian)
Introduction
Gender-based violence including rape, intimate partner violence, domestic violence, sex trafficking, and honor killings is part of a global pattern of violence against women. A pattern supported by educational, economic and occupational discrimination. Partner, family, and sexual violence is the leading cause of death and disability for women aged 16 to 44 worldwide (Rose, 2013). In Iranian society, violence against women is considered a personal and family matter, and many officials refuse to deal with it. But the similar patterns that exist in the experiences of assaulting women reveal that violence against women is something beyond a special issue, and it has its roots in cultural and social practices (Sadeghi Fasaei, 2010).
One of the main social problems in Iranian Kurdistan is the spread of family violence. Violence against women is the most serious type of violence in the family structure, and one of the most common aspects of which is the phenomenon of honor killings (Riahi & Esmaili, 2019). The results of the national project “Survey of domestic violence against women in 28 provinces of Iran” show that in the year leading up to the research, women have experienced at least one type of violence, and the city of Sanandaj is one of the provincial centers with statistics with a high level of domestic violence (Qazi Tabatabai, 2004).
Gender-based violence is not limited to a certain age. It occurs among women with different social positions, and also because violence is not limited to the family and its existence in public and official arenas, gender violence has become a social problem. The most common reason for denying women’s human rights is to preserve family and culture. Gender violence is one of the important causes of illness and death among women and it has long been known as a problem and challenge to human rights, which has serious consequences for the health of society and is an obstacle to economic development (Roze, 2013: 61). The present research intends to examine the conditions and contexts of violence in the family, public, and official arenas by referring to women’s lived experience of gender violence, and through that, provide strategies to deal with gender violence.
Method
In the current research, qualitative methodology and Grounded Theory (GT) method were used to study the contexts of gender violence. The participants in the current research are women from Sanandaj who have experienced violence in family life and public and official arenas, and are referred to courts and counseling centers. The participants were selected using purposive sampling and the maximum variation strategy. Considering the principle of theoretical saturation in determining the number of sample people, a semi-structured interview was conducted with a total of 35 women who experienced violence. The data were coded in three levels: open, axial, and selective. For data validation, participants’ quotes, audit technique, control or validation by members and researcher’s self-review technique were used.
Findings
What was evident in the statements of the interviewees is that their world is mixed with violence. They have experienced institutional violence, symbolic violence, visible violence and psychological violence in the family and public and official arenas. Based on the data, gender socialization, institutional discrimination, and deprivation of power sources have shaped the contexts of gender violence. The experience of violence for women is mixed with disempowerment, neglect, institutional exclution, pervasive fear, and cynicism towards men.
Women adopt strategies based on their experience of violence. Interviewees were asked what ways they have taken to get out of violence and assault. Based on the data, although girls and women have tried to make their living conditions more acceptable through negotiation and activism, due to the absence of gender awareness, resistance against assault has not become the dominant action of women. Therefore, fatalism and escaping from society has become the most common strategy of the studied women in facing violence; strategies that have led to the acceptance of conventional identity, fear and cynicism towards men and the absence of life politics.
Discussion
Deprivation of power sources, lack of access to supportive social networks, institutional discrimination, and obstruction of organizational promotion show the fragility and vulnerability of women in various fields. As shown in Table 1, the core category of “gender violence as social exclusion” shows the fact that gender violence has led to double social exclusion of women. The spread of violence shows more than anything else the institutional and structural aspect of violence. Therefore, gender violence cannot be reduced to an individual issue and neglect the change and reform of the institutional and structural foundations of violence.
Table 1. Selective coding
| Category | Category type | Axial Category | Core category | |
| gender socialization | causal condition | institutional exclution | gender violence as social exclusion |
|
| institutional discrimination | contextual conditions | |||
| obstruction of organizational promotion | ||||
| lack of support networks | intervening condition | |||
| Forms of violence | institutional | experience and understanding | symbolic and institutional violence | |
| symbolic | ||||
| visible(objective) | ||||
| psychological | ||||
| determinism and submissiveness | strategy | from compromise to desperation | ||
| escaping from society | ||||
| acceptance of conventional identity | consequence | absence of Politics of life | ||
| Pessimism and fear of men | ||||
| death of self and individual concerns | ||||
As Acker (1992) states in the framework of the “gendered Institutions” approach, the production and reproduction of gender inequality takes place through gendered Institutions. Work and family are among the gender institutions that provide unequal distribution of power sources and gender violence. The genderization of social rules and institutions implies the structural foundations of gender violence.
Based on the field data, the social division of labour in the family has an unequal nature and it is necessary to rebuild the social roles in the family. In terms of strategy, emotional democracy, communication rationality and horizontalization of power relations in the family depend on the redefinition of the role of femininity and masculinity with an emphasis on the appropriateness of rights and roles. Talking about the reconstruction of social roles in the family will be incomplete without redefining and reconstructing the role and status of women in society and the necessity of this work is the participation of women in establishing the rules governing different fields as a prerequisite for degendering social rules and the institutionalized participation of women in different fields.
Ethical Considerations
Author contributions
The author contributed in designing, running, and writing all parts of the research.
Conflicts of interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Acker, J. (1992). From sex roles to gendered institutions. Contemporary Sociology, 21(5), 565-569. https://doi.org/10.2307/2075528
Qazi Tabatabai, M. (2004). National research on domestic violence against women. Women’s Affairs Participation Center of the Presidential Institution and the Ministry of Interior. (In Persian)
Rose, S. D. (2013). Challenging global gender violence. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 82, 61-65. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137388483
Sadeghi Fasaei, S. (2010). A qualitative study of domestic violence and women’s coping strategies in Iran. Iranian Journal of Social Problems, 1(1), 107-142. https://ijsp.ut.ac.ir/article_20747.html?lang=en(In Persian)
Type of Study: orginal |
Received: 2024/04/3 | Accepted: 2024/09/1 | Published: 2024/12/30
Received: 2024/04/3 | Accepted: 2024/09/1 | Published: 2024/12/30
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